I'm a good driver, well trained in my youth and with 40 years of experience, and there aren't many driving-related situations that I fear, but I won't ever drive in England again if I can avoid it.

To a Canadian, English roads are unbelievably cramped and cluttered, even in the country, and driving safely is exhausting -- not for one second could I relax and take my place in a steady stream of traffic, as I would do here. On the M-series autoroutes, where the speeds seem to be measured in Mach levels, our poor little rented Vauxhall could barely keep up, but hanging out in the slow lanes didn't work because of their nasty habit of turning into exit ramps, not to speak of the heavy truck traffic. The A roads were worse: no shoulders (!), a roundabout at every junction, vehicles parked higgledy-piggledy in lay-bys, and cyclists and pedestrians doing their best to not get killed. We were there for a month, travelling around Salisbury Plain and bopping in and out of Wales, and I needed every ounce of skill I have to get us to our various destinations without doing anything dangerous.

In North America, I most dislike driving through construction sites, especially in rain. I dread the day some road mender decides to pop out from behind a backhoe and dart in front of me as I'm negotiating the obstacle course.